Diamond coming off 007.

[Mike360]

I meant routes so I should have made myself more clear.
I agree Blue Diamond is pretty rubbish with buses running late and tatty ones and getting rid of tendered routes would be OK so they could concentrate on making commercial routes successful and really they should have on entire network with one branding black diamond.

[Mike360]

The PVR of the 417 is 5 which I know.

[Ash]

The 404E lately is not even seeing the crusaders on the service any more today there were red diamond darts, a swift branded dart, solos and an all over white diamond dart as well as a couple of newly repainted black diamond pointers. The black diamond network in West Bromwich is very popular services like 401/2/404E and 410 are very well used not so much the 417 although uses the centro's. The 301 is very popular in Walsall along with the 401E. Diamond need new investment but will this come when the sandwell bus review happens.

Most of the commerical services diamond run have been ran by companies that diamond brought up for years as petes travel ran the 404E as their first commerical route and soon after the 401/2 and 401E and the 410 was ran by the birmingham coach company from early 1990's and ludlows with the 002/417 and similar with the other services by diamond like the 16/50/301 and blue diamonds 97 which was petes travel before

[PM]

Cheers for the info on the 417 Mike-seems higher than I expected tho I do believe you... I hope like Ash that investment comes with the Sandwell bus review and investment could come from the ex Red Diamond fleet-the volvos etc. I agree-diamond's commercial routes are good performers, blue diamond is rubbish-expected more ppl to disagree with me about closing blue diamond etc but it seems not. I tell you-diamond would do better if we ran it! Tho I would like to work for rotala in the future

[Discodave]

123 is tendered is`nt it?

yes it is

[Mike360]

The 404E lately is not even seeing the crusaders on the service any more today there were red diamond darts, a swift branded dart, solos and an all over white diamond dart as well as a couple of newly repainted black diamond pointers. The black diamond network in West Bromwich is very popular services like 401/2/404E and 410 are very well used not so much the 417 although uses the centro's. The 301 is very popular in Walsall along with the 401E. Diamond need new investment but will this come when the sandwell bus review happens.

Most of the commerical services diamond run have been ran by companies that diamond brought up for years as petes travel ran the 404E as their first commerical route and soon after the 401/2 and 401E and the 410 was ran by the birmingham coach company from early 1990's and ludlows with the 002/417 and similar with the other services by diamond like the 16/50/301 and blue diamonds 97 which was petes travel before

So what routes have the Wright Crusaders on as I only saw one on the 404E today and the 417 did have one that struggled terribly up Mucklow Hill and only had myself and 2 other people on it and and when catching another 417 back all the way from West Brom to Halesowen it on it ran virtually empty with 1 other person on it to Blackheath and then 3 people to Halesowen so it could be reduced to every 30 minutes. It is meant to arrive in Halesowen at 2:45 but got to 2 stops before at 2.36 so waited at least 7-8 minutes at a bus stop which was rather annoying.
Also on the 417 was 3 Royales and a Hybrid Versa.
They certainly shouldn't put optare solo's on the 404E route which can get really busy as I was on one today that had a few people standing (20540).

[PM]

Theres always one crusader an ex Oxfor one on the 50

[PM]

And one on the 16...

[Ash]

The 404E lately is not even seeing the crusaders on the service any more today there were red diamond darts, a swift branded dart, solos and an all over white diamond dart as well as a couple of newly repainted black diamond pointers. The black diamond network in West Bromwich is very popular services like 401/2/404E and 410 are very well used not so much the 417 although uses the centro's. The 301 is very popular in Walsall along with the 401E. Diamond need new investment but will this come when the sandwell bus review happens.

Most of the commerical services diamond run have been ran by companies that diamond brought up for years as petes travel ran the 404E as their first commerical route and soon after the 401/2 and 401E and the 410 was ran by the birmingham coach company from early 1990's and ludlows with the 002/417 and similar with the other services by diamond like the 16/50/301 and blue diamonds 97 which was petes travel before

So what routes have the Wright Crusaders on as I only saw one on the 404E today and the 417 did have one that struggled terribly up Mucklow Hill and only had myself and 2 other people on it and and when catching another 417 back all the way from West Brom to Halesowen it on it ran virtually empty with 1 other person on it to Blackheath and then 3 people to Halesowen so it could be reduced to every 30 minutes. It is meant to arrive in Halesowen at 2:45 but got to 2 stops before at 2.36 so waited at least 7-8 minutes at a bus stop which was rather annoying.
Also on the 417 was 3 Royales and a Hybrid Versa.
They certainly shouldn't put optare solo's on the 404E route which can get really busy as I was on one today that had a few people standing (20540).

I got on the same solo today on the 404E and was half full and the darts heading towards Walsall in the other direction seem to have high loadings. I was on a cadet it was 30216 on the 417 and i think i could have walked up Mucklow hill faster and again like you said was about 5 on board. Drivers complained allegedly about the centro's on the 404E about the tight turns around Caldmore so were taken off even though it was centro operated for along time before the mcv's. The 404E just sees a mixed bag of buses on it now and doesnt surpise me people were standing up on the solo i have seen the full sized darts rammed in the day time. I would think the cadets are on the 301 and 401/2 and 410 with the regular buses off those services on the 404E. There were also a few black diamond darts that normally stick to the 59 on the 404E so could have swapped around vehicles.

[PM]

Does the 59 get busy? Remember that tho centros used to do the 404E in the past-some of these were the smaller MAN ones-I know the longer mans-801/6 and the volvos did go on the route but it was these that were less manoeuvrable. Ideally, they should buy some secondhand wright commanders and cadets as these would suit their network. Glad diamond do well on 404e-do nxwm get that busy? Why are diamond successful on this route?

[John]

do nxwm get that busy?

They do, sometimes leaving Walsall when I'm on the 404, people are standing in the aisle.

[Ash]

The centros that used to get used on the 404E were 802-5 and 4 from 807-11. I think 801/6 were used on the 202/4 services then. The royale centros get used regulary on the 404E on sundays along with the versa's. The 404E always seems to be well used monday and saturday and have proved a sucess since introducing evening and sunday services which i think is the only black diamond service (commercial) they operate 7 days a week daytimes and evenings as the 301 doesnt have a sunday evening service. NXWM seems to do well but Tony mentioned about a six minute frequency service not making a profit or something along those lines so please dont quote me on that not saying its the 404 it could be any NXWM 6 minute frequency service. NXWM 404 can somtimes bunch up together causing gaps in the service and this is where diamond takes advantage. Often a diamond 404 daytime service can stop at nearly every stop picking up passengers depeding on wether a nxwm bus is in front hence solos do not have the capcity for this.

The blackheath to Oldbury section is generally not busy hence the 417 seems to struggle but between Walsall and Oldbury the 404 can be very busy both diamond 404E and NXWM 404

[PM]

So glad diamond do well on 404E-they should extend to Merry Hill-that would be a good idea. Maybe they should transfer 802-5 back onto 404E from the 50 and use darts on the 50 which is more lightly used. Or, if they wanted luxury buses on the 404E-treat 802-5 to a refurb into royale spec-then you get mini royales. They need some bigger buses than solos clearly.....or up the frequency..It would be great if the diamond one made a profit and nxwm didnt -on one of their own routes!! Maybe an operator can break the NXWM dominance

[Ash]

I think if the 404E never had the mcv's for the service then it would have been unlikely that the 002 and 50 would have recieved the centro's branded for them when they were taken off the 404E. Surely rotala has to try some new services or upgrade existing services in the west midlands as if you look at the wessex red fleet they have the ex diamond centro's, omnilinks, geminis and tridents

[PM]

They should upgrade existing ones and try out again on 64/9/87/120/74 etc with free buses like on 301-thats probably why they are successful on the route now